Dangerous Liaison Part I

Short Story - By Khurshid
Khoree

(This story is in 3 parts and will
be published for three consecutive months)

A massive
structure made of glass and concrete stood tall and wide on the busiest
commercial center in Bombay. As I alighted from the bus in front of my office
Trident Designs and Systems, I was still feeling weak and tired after a long
bout of illness.

“Hello, Daisy!”
Rhea Joseph greeted me, her friendly grin lighting up her cherubic face, as I
joined her to wait for the elevator.

“Good to see you
back! Hope you have completely recovered?”

Rhea was our
friendly office junior. She was a bit of a scatter brain and far too fond of
gossiping, but she was so cheerful and good natured that it covered up her
faults and you just couldn’t help but like her.

I smiled back,
“I am much better now, thank you Rhea. This illness was the worst one I have
ever had.” I told her as we stepped into the elevator. “I have never been away
from work for so long. What’s been happening here while I was away?” I inquired
as the elevator made its way up to the tenth floor. “Have I missed anything
exciting?” I enquired.

“Exciting is not
the word? It was sensational,” Rhea replied controlling her eagerness, her
round face suddenly took on a solemn expression. “Something has happened but
it’s rather awful, really – it’s almost as bad as death.” she added
dramatically. She looked over her shoulder, for effect, though there was no one
other than us in the elevator took a deep breath and said, “You know Amit
Khanna? Well, he’s gone! He got the boot!”

“What?” I
screamed. “This is not some kind of a joke Rhea, is it?” I stood there with
bated breath waiting for her to burst out in laughter. Amit’s handsome face
flashed in front of my eyes.

“Amit,
Fired? I don’t believe it! You are
joking, aren’t you?” I said aghast.

Rhea shook her
head emphatically. “No. I am not.” she replied seriously. “You are lucky Daisy;
you did not witness the awful row, and all the shouting and fist flaying that
went on between Amit and Mr. Pandey. Do you remember how Mr. Mody brought the
roof down when he suspected that someone was passing out company’s research and
development information and selling them to our rivals – especially QAC
Systems? Could you believe it, it was Amit! He was caught red handed.”

The elevator was
inching towards our floor and I felt sick to my stomach. Amit was the traitor?
I asked myself. It just didn’t make any sense, it was not possible.

“What….what do
you mean he was caught red handed?” I squeaked out.

Rhea had realized
how shocked and shaken I was for she looked uncertain, almost embarrassed. “I
really don’t know the exact story, but apparently Mr. Mody took on the role of
Sherlock Holmes and caught Amit with some drawings and reports in his
briefcase, which shouldn’t have been there. Of course he denied the
allegations, but…..” she stopped abruptly as the elevator halted and the doors
opened. As we stepped out we saw Mr. Mody’s personal secretary Norma
Castellino.

“Better not say any more,” Rhea muttered under her breath. “We are not really
supposed to talk about it. It’s an order from Mr. Mody.”

I felt like
screaming in frustration, and I could feel Norma’s eyes on us and understood
why Rhea was being so cautious. We all knew in the office that Norma was spying
on all of us on Mr. Mody’s instructions. The slightest of mistake on our part
was reported to him immediately.

As we distanced
ourselves from Norma, Rhea looked over her shoulder and continued in a whisper.
“You know how highly Sherlock thought of Amit and how fond he was of him. Amit
was the last person in the office he would have ever suspected.”

Puzzled I asked,
“Sherlock?”

Rhea giggled,
“Our very own Mr. Mody dumb head. Everyone in the office calls him that now,
but not in her hearing though.” She swung her head towards where Norma was
standing speaking to one of the staff members.

Rhea came very
close to me and whispered in my ear, “Be careful, Norma is not very fond of
you, so be careful what you say to anyone.” she said dramatically.

She too didn’t
like Norma any more than I did.

Norma was
pretty, wore branded clothes, and had a superior air about her – she seemed to
think that being Mr. Mody’s personal secretary she was a cut above us all.
I couldn’t help wondering as I walked to my office, what was Norma’s reaction
to Amit’s dismissal? There had been a time when the two of them has seemed very
friendly and the office rumor mill was abounding with stories of their secret
love affair. But shortly afterwards, something went wrong and Norma had given
him the brush off.

Fancy anyone
being daft enough to dump a guy as appealing as Amit Khanna. I was crazy about
him and had secretly loved him for a long time, ever since I had first laid my
eyes on him. It’s a different story that he had scarcely even noticed me.

I was only the
production manager’s personal assistant – whereas he was being groomed for a
top position in the company and he had been Mr. Mody’s blue eyed boy.

I sighed as I
thought about Rhea’s revelation. I still found it hard to believe that Amit had
been stealing high level secret information and selling them to our
competitors. He just wasn’t the type to
do something as underhand and sneaky as what he was accused of. He had such an
open honest face with trusting deep brown eyes.

He couldn’t be a
thief – he just couldn’t be! I had to find out if Rhea was exaggerating the
whole issue, so the first opportunity I got, I asked Sunil who shared my office
what he thought about the way Amit had been sacked.

“It’s true
alright – he didn’t have a thing to say in his defense,” Sunil told me bluntly.

“He couldn’t
explain how those drawings and photocopies of some sensitive documents happen
to be in his briefcase. And mind you, a CD with some vital information was also
found.” Shaking his head he continued, “The documents were top secret that only
the very senior people knew about. So the question was how did he have the
copies? Of course, Amit denied all knowledge of it and that he had ever sold
information to QAC Systems or any of the other competitors.”

Sunil paused
looking at me deep in thought. “But apart from the photocopies and the CD,
there was loads of evidence against him. He had just bought a new Bolero, and
to cap it all, he had booked a month long holiday to Europe. When questioned by
Mr. Mody, he said he had been saving up for years, but…..” his voice trailed
off and shrugging his shoulders Sunil turned back to his work.

“What’s wrong
with that?” I demanded. “Amit was getting a hefty pay check, more in a month
than what you and I could make in a year, so why couldn’t he have saved for his
holiday and buy an expensive car?”

Sunil turned and
looked at me, a grin on his face. “You always had a soft spot for Amit, haven’t
you? He asked and ignoring the redness spreading on my face, continued, “I liked
him too - he seemed a real nice guy. But you can’t ignore the facts Daisy! If
he wasn’t ripping of the firm what was he doing with the documents and drawings
which would have shot up QAC Systems market value ten folds, and what were they
doing in his briefcase? He challenged me for an answer. I couldn’t think of any
sensible answer to that.

“He was lucky if
you ask me.” Sunil added. “Mr. Mody only fired him – he could have called the
cops and had him arrested.” he pointed out. “It was a breach of trust you know,
it’s a crime. He could have ended up in prison.”

I had to agree,
“I know that, but it doesn’t sound as though Mr. Mody gave him much of a chance
to defend himself,” I muttered unhappily, staring at the blank screen of my
monitor and “It wasn’t fair sacking him on the spot. There ought to have been
an enquiry first.”

“What’s wrong
with you Daisy? What more proof do you want?” Sunil showed his irritation
openly; “Mr. Mody was too upset to….” he stopped abruptly as Norma came into
the office carrying a thick folder. She must have heard a part of our
conversation because she glanced sharply from me to Sunil and snapped:
“gossiping are we? Men are as bad as some women I know.” she said
sarcastically. “Anyone would think you don’t have enough work to do. The sooner
everyone forgets about Amit Khanna the better it would for them,” she said
looking at me directly. “There are some ridiculous rumours going around about
that disgraceful business and I happen to know that Mr. Mody intends to squash
them fast and hard.” she announced with an edge of threat and walked into Mr.
Murthy’s office.

We did not discuss Amit after that, but later, when Norma had swept past us on her way out without a glance in our direction Sunil looked at me grinning and commented, “Well, she is obviously not breaking her heart over Amit’s disgrace! What a cat she is.”

“A dangerous and sharp clawed cat,” I remarked in anger. “Have you seen the way she dresses? She must be spending a fortune on the clothes she wears to office Sunil? That’s a super outfit she is wearing today – I love that colour and it’s definitely one of Ramani’s designer collection, I could make it out from the cut and the straight lines of the garment.”

“Spare me the details please, Daisy. I have no interest in what you ladies wear. But, yes, I have also noticed, Miss snooty, her dress sense is rather exclusive and expensive. I wonder how she can afford it.” Sunil remarked, but continued “Daisy, how about having lunch with me today. Let’s try out the new place two blocks away.”

Surprised at his invitation and taken off guard, I hesitated for a while, “Not today, Sunil. Thanks for asking. I’ll take a rain check on your invitation some other day perhaps.” I replied with a smile, steering away from the conversation which was going on a different strain altogether.

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